O.b.

One of golf's great conflicts was finally resolved last week. The USGA versus the ERC II? Nope. Ben Wright versus Valerie Helmbrick? Negative. The antagonists here were Ian Leggatt, the Tucson Open champ, and his erstwhile caddie, Dan (the Punk) McQuilken. It all goes back to October's Michelob Championship when Leggatt hit a shot O.B. and took out his frustration on his golf bag, in the process smashing the Punk's prized Ebell watch, which had been tucked into one of the pockets. After receiving a threatening letter from the Punk's lawyer, Leggatt spent $2,600 on a new Ebell and, around the start of the year, sent it to his now very ex-caddie. According to Leggatt, three weeks ago the watch was returned to him by the lawyer, who wrote that the Punk was demanding a duplicate of the original older model. Last Saturday the Punk gruffly dismissed SI's inquiries about the incident, but later that night he called Leggatt and said that he would now accept the replacement watch. Says Leggatt, "I think all the questions had something to do with his change of heart."

?Going, gone: Jan Stephenson, 50, says she will retire at the end of this season, while 15-year LPGA veteran Dottie Pepper will be out eight to 12 weeks after having surgery on her left shoulder last Friday.

?During the first round of the Genuity Classic, Jesper Parnevik (left, pleading his case) became the latest player to commit golf's trendiest rules violation. On the 11th green, caddie Lance Ten Broeck tossed a ball to Parnevik, who fumbled the catch. The ball fell to the ground and moved Parnevik's mark, an automatic one-stroke penalty, per rule 20-1. Three Senior tour players have committed the same infraction in the past six months—including Hale Irwin at February's Ace Classic, which he went on to win—but Parnevik refused to turn in his scorecard until he conferred by telephone with Tom Meeks, the chairman of the USGA's competition committee. After signing for a 71, Parnevik dismissed the rule as the "dumbest ever," but Ten Broeck blamed the incident on cultural differences. "In Sweden they don't catch too well," he said.